HEADWATERS OF THE PARAGUAY 115 



the rest of us turned back toward the boat. The two ex- 

 hausted members of the party gave out, and we left them 

 under a tree. Colonel Rondon and Lieutenant Rogaciano 

 were not much tired; I was somewhat tired, but was per- 

 fectly able to go for several hours more if I did not try to 

 go too fast; and we three walked on to the river, reaching 

 it about half past four, after eleven hours' stiff walking 

 with nothing to eat. We were soon on the boat. A re- 

 lief party went back for the two men under the tree, and 

 soon after it reached them Kermit also turned up with his 

 hounds and his camaradas trailing wearily behind him. He 

 had followed the jaguar trail until the dogs were so tired 

 that even after he had bathed them, and then held their 

 noses in the fresh footprints, they would pay no heed to 

 the scent. A hunter of scientific tastes, a hunter-natural- 

 ist, or even an outdoors naturalist, or faunal naturalist 

 interested in big mammals, with a pack of hounds such 

 as those with which Paul Rainey hunted lion and leopard 

 in Africa, or such a pack as the packs of Johnny Goff and 

 Jake Borah with which I hunted cougar, lynx, and bear in 

 the Rockies, or such packs as those of the Mississippi and 

 Louisiana planters with whom I have hunted bear, wild- 

 cat, and deer in the cane-brakes of the lower Mississippi, 

 would not only enjoy fine hunting in these vast marshes 

 of the upper Paraguay, but would also do work of real 

 scientific value as regards all the big cats. 



Only a limited number of the naturalists who have 

 worked in the tropics have had any experience with the 

 big beasts whose life-histories possess such peculiar interest. 

 Of all the biologists who have seriously studied the South 

 American fauna on the ground, Bates probably rendered 



